Featured Charity of the month: Jewish Family & Children’s Service

Featured Charity of the month: Jewish Family & Children’s Service

By Alison Bailin Batz

Founded in 1935, Jewish Family & Children’s Service (JFCS) is a non-profit, non-sectarian organization that strengthens the community by providing behavioral health, healthcare and social services to children, families and adults of all ages, in accordance with a Jewish value system that cares for all humanity.

The organization has been making headlines all year long, most notably when it underwent its reaccreditation process through the Council on Accreditation, which partners with human service organizations worldwide to improve service delivery outcomes by developing, applying, and promoting rigorous standards. The result: JFCS earned the highest level of accreditation available.

In addition, JFCS was also honored for the seventh year with the Excellence in Giving Transparency Certificate, awarded to nonprofits that reveal challenges and successes they have experienced in reaching their goals, promoting a community that holds themselves to a higher standard of openness and accountability.

JFCS was honored to earn its first-ever Platinum Seal of Transparency from GuideStar, the world’s largest nonprofit database this past spring.

A chief reason for all the headline-making honors is the sheer number of quality programs offered through the organization on a daily basis.

Some of the programs included are:

Integrated Healthcare JFCS offers an integrated healthcare program where clients are treated by a collaborative team of therapists, clinicians, medical doctors, psychiatrists, nurse practitioners, and other healthcare professionals. The coordinated care efforts of this multidisciplinary team treat every aspect of a client’s well-being.

Transition to Adulthood In 2009, the Department of Child Safety reached out to JFCS in an effort to help children in foster care and group homes as they approached adulthood. In response, JFCS developed Transition to Adulthood, which helps young adults with career planning, college enrollment, housing, daily living skills, finance management and behavioral health issues.

Real World Job Development Founded in 2006, this program helps young adults 16 to 24 learn how to apply their knowledge and skills to find gainful employment. Participants in this program have gone on to find work in schools, hospitals, veterinary clinics, small businesses, and more. Many foster care youth enrolled in this program manage to achieve their educational and/or employment goals.

Counseling & Behavioral Health JFCS employs a staff of therapists, clinicians, psychiatrists, and nurse practitioners who serve more than 12,000 people across the Valley every year with the goal of helping people of all ages learn how to more effectively cope with life’s difficult circumstances.

Adolescent Substance Abuse Substance abuse among young teens is not uncommon and, just like any adult, recovering from it requires support. JFCS has developed an innovative treatment plan for teens age 12-17 and their families to help during this difficult time.

Shelter Without Walls The Shelter Without Walls domestic violence program addresses the unmet needs of Maricopa County survivors of domestic violence and their children, who are residing outside of a shelter setting, and are struggling to attain and/or maintain safety and independence, whether or not still living with their abuser.

Outpatient Mental Health Services JFCS operates four outpatient clinics in Maricopa County. Services include individual, group and family therapy to address a number of mental health and substance use disorder issues. Clinicians are trained in trauma-informed approaches, motivational interviewing, cognitive therapies and person-centered therapeutic approaches that are solution focused.

Memory Café Memory Café is a meeting place for those with changes in their thinking or memory, mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer’s disease or a related disorder, along with their care partners. Meetings are held at the same location each month and will include meaningful and fun activities to engage the participants and stimulate their minds and bodies.

For more information on all services available and to find out how you can help, visit www.jfcsaz.org.